Business transactions between parties are usually formalized by signing documents that specify the terms of the agreement between the parties. The nature of the business transaction can determine the number and complexity of the documents. In real estate transactions in particular, there can be multiple different forms, signed at different times by buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and escrow agents, among others.
For example, when a seller places their home on the market for sale, the seller often signs a listing agreement with a real estate agent. When an interested buyer makes an offer on the home, the buyer can condition the offer upon a number of contingencies, such as a home inspection, the sale of the buyer's current home, and other contingencies, that become part of the offer. The seller may make counteroffers. This process may go back and forth until an agreement is reached. At that point, the agreed upon price and all of the conditions are signed by the parties and a binding contract is formed. Most of the time the parties are not in the same physical location when the offers, counteroffers, and acceptances are signed. Fax machines are often used to facilitate the process, as well as emailing scanned documents.
The seller may also sign a variety of forms relating to their home. For example, a common form for home sellers is a Lead-Based Paint Disclosure form. A hypothetical Lead-Based Disclosure form 100 is presented in FIG. 1. The form 100 includes places for buyers, sellers and agents to insert the appropriate information, for example by writing in the information by hand or typing it directly into an electronic version of the form 100 on a computer. The form 100 can include a check space 102, a selection space 104 for making a selection from a group of listed selections, a text space 106 for entering a description, initial spaces 108 for the seller's initials, the buyer's initials, and the agent's initials, and signature spaces 110 and date boxes 112 for the seller's signature and date, the buyer's signature and date, and the agent's signature and date. Sellers, buyers, and their agents are often not in the same contemporaneous physical location. Therefore, signed documents are often faxed between parties, with original signed copies being retained for the closing. In some instances, especially for important documents, two copies of the documents are signed, with one originally signed copy returned to the seller and one originally signed copy retained by the buyer.